Hootsuite founder says social media managers are the CMOs of the future

Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes.

Many people I spoke with in the Singapore startup community knew about Hootsuite, but few could tell me the name of its founder, Ryan Holmes, or describe his character.

“I like to do a lot of things outdoors,” he shared with me in an exclusive interview with Tech in Asia. “In fact, I went heliboarding four days before my trip to Asia.” The heliboarding didn’t turn out too well, as he broke his right foot in an accident. Still, he seemed cheerful and confident as he first greeted me.

The injury did not deter him from making his first business trip to Asia. He arrived in Singapore after grueling business trips to New Zealand, Australia, and Malaysia, and shared that there will be more trips to go before he returns to Canada for a possible surgery on his injured foot.

Canada-based Hootsuite has raised an estimated US$247 million in funding since its founding in 2008. The company is rumored to be a unicorn, with a valuation north of US$1 billion. This valuation has yet to be confirmed, as Ryan has only mentioned it in a tweet.

Ryan described himself as a life-long entrepreneur, starting multiple entrepreneurial ventures since he was 16. According to him, he loves the experience and has a penchant for solving problems for customers.

Social media managers are the CMOs of the future

Ryan shared a teaser of his upcoming book, The 4 Billion Dollar Tweet, saying:

“Hootsuite has over 15 million product users. I think of them as the CMOs of the future. Social media managers, community managers, online marketing managers— these people understand where the customer relationship lives. However, getting executive buy-in [into social media] has been difficult. A lot of CEOs just want their social media teams to take care of social media.”

His main point: Leaders and CEOs need to get involved with social media.

He likened the use of social media to email in the early 2000s. According to him, if you don’t know how to use social media today, “you will be obsolete” just like you would have been if you didn’t know how to use email today.

He cited President Donald Trump’s tweet on Lockheed Martin in December 2016, which caused a plunge in market valuation by US$1.2 billion.

“My question to leaders [is] if somebody like Donald Trump or somebody influential tweets about your company today, have you built up the DNA, do you know how to use this medium and this technology, or are going to get caught flat-footed? Directors who assess reputation risks are not doing their responsibilities if they do not understand [the importance of] this communication media.”

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